A practical medium for reducing costs and enhancing both biomass and intracellular polysaccharide (IPS) production by a newly screened Agaricus blazei AB003 has been selected. The results show that IPS production was growth-associated, that a combination of corn flour extract and glucose was the best carbon source, and that a combination of wheat bran extract and yeast extract was the best nitr...

ABSTRACT Planting the cotton cv. Sure-Grow 747 in cotton seedling disease plots during the 2001 growing season resulted in high levels of preemergence damping-off among the seedlings. Four cotton pathogens, Pythium aphanidermatum, P. ultimum, an unidentified Pythium sp., and Rhizopus oryzae, were isolated from diseased seed embryos and seedlings. Disease incited by the Pythium spp. could be con...

A two-step method was developed to evaluate potato resistance to black scurf caused by Rhizoctonia solani. Tuber piece inoculum was first conducted in the laboratory, which was also first reported in this study. After inoculation with pathogen discs and culture for 48 h, the necrotic spots on the inoculated potato pieces were generated and measured by the crossing method. Further evaluation was...

Physico-chemical properties of dietary fibres might be involved in metabolic control, particularly of the postprandial blood glucose response. The aim of the present study was to look at the effects of the content of soluble fibres and of the particle size of solid fibres on in vitro and in vivo starch hydrolysis and on the subsequent glucose absorption as well as the triacylglycerolaemia. Two ...

Pectin lyase and polygalacturonase production by newly isolated Penicillium viridicatum strain Rfc3 was carried out by means of solid state fermentation using orange bagasse, corn tegument, wheat bran and mango and banana peels as carbon sources. The maximal activity value of polygalacturonase (Pg) (30U.g) was obtained using wheat bran as carbon source while maximal pectin lyase (Pl) (2000 U.g)...

An experiment was conducted to determine effects of wheat bran (WB) phytase on production performance and nutrient utilization in laying hens. Three hundred and seventy-five Lohmann hens at 32 weeks of age were randomly allotted to treatments of fifteen hens per pen with five pens per treatment. Five experimental diets were formulated. Diet one (control) contained 0.19% inorganic phosphate (Pi)...

1. Five groups of male Sprague Dawley rats were given for 6 months a diet with high protein and fat contents but a very low dietary fibre content (group B), and this diet mixed with (g/kg) 50 low-methoxyl pectin (group L), 50 high-methoxyl pectin (group H), 50 guar gum (group G) and 200 wheat bran (group WB, corresponding to 100 wheat fibre) respectively. 2. The weight increment was significant...

Providencia sp. strain X1 showing the highest xylanase activity among six bacterial isolates was isolated from saw-dust decomposing site. Strain X1 produced cellulase-free extracellular xylanase, which was higher in wheat bran medium than in xylan medium, when cultivated at pH 8.0 and 35°C. Zymogram analysis of crude preparation of enzymes obtained while growing on wheat bran and birchwood xyla...

The effects of wheat bran and pectin on the gastrointestinal distribution of a radiolabelled, homogenized baked-bean meal were investigated in the rat. These fibres were chosen because of their very different physical characteristics; wheat bran is a coarse, particulate, mainly insoluble fibre whilst pectin is a soluble viscous polysaccharide. Sixty male rats were administered orally with contr...